Hermann Rauschning  

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Hermann Rauschning (7 August 1887 – February 8, 1982) was a German conservative reactionary who briefly joined the Nazi movement before breaking with it. He was the President of the Free City of Danzig from 1933-1934, during which he led the Senate of the Free City of Danzig. In 1934, he renounced Nazi Party membership and in 1936 emigrated from Germany. He eventually settled in the United States and began openly denouncing Nazism. Rauschning is chiefly known for his book Gespräche mit Hitler (Conversations with Hitler, American title: Voice of Destruction, British title: Hitler Speaks) in which he claimed to have had many meetings and conversations with Adolf Hitler.

In Die Revolution des Nihilismus (The Revolution of Nihilism), he wrote that "the National Socialism that came to power in 1933 was no longer a nationalist but a revolutionary movement" and as the book's title states a nihilistic revolution that destroyed all values and traditions. He believed that the only alternative to Nazism was the restoration of the monarchy. His book went through 17 printings in the United States. The book was directed at conservatives in Nazi Germany, whom he hoped to warn of the alleged anti-Christian nature of the Nazi revolution.

His success with the publication of his Die Revolution des Nihilismus book (The Revolution of Nihilism) in early 1938 made Rauschning financially able to pursue his German edition of Gespräche mit Hitler (Conversations with Hitler) and the other early versions and translations in 1939 and 1940. The first edition of The Revolution of Nihilism was printed in German under a Zürich, Switzerland, publishing house (Europa), which was "rapidly followed by ever renewed editions." Its English translation was published in 1939 and became "the third best-seller on the non-fiction list."

Rauschning's ideas of conservative Christian resistance to Hitler met with increasing scepticism and were of no interest to Winston Churchill and his doctrine of uncompromising total war.

Works

  • Musikgeschichte Danzigs, (Dissertation University of Berlin) Berlin 1911
  • Geschichte der Musik und Musikpflege in Danzig. Von den Anfängen bis zur Auflösung der Kirchenkapellen, Danzig 1931
  • As editor: Posener Drucke, erster Druck: Nicolaus Coppernicus aus Thorn. Über die Umdrehungen der Himmelskörper. Aus seinen Schriften und Briefen Posen 1923
  • Die Entdeutschung Westpreußens und Posens. Zehn Jahre polnische Politik, Berlin 1930. reprinted 1988 with the title Die Abwanderung der deutschen Bevölkerung aus Westpreußen und Posen 1919–1929.
  • 10 Monate nationalsozialistische Regierung in Danzig, (speech) Danzig 1934
  • Die Revolution des Nihilismus. Kulisse und Wirklichkeit im Dritten Reich, Zürich 1938 (US, The Revolution of Nihilism, Warning to the West, Alliance, 1939; UK, Germany's Revolution of Destruction, William Heinemann, 1939)
  • Gespräche mit Hitler, Zürich 1940 (US, The Voice of Destruction, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1940; UK, Hitler Speaks. A Series of Political Conversations with Adolf Hitler on his Real Aims, Thornton Butterworth, 1940; France, Hitler m′a dit; Dutch Hitlers eigen woorden(by Menno ter Braak and Max Nord
  • Die konservative Revolution : Versuch und Bruch mit Hitler New York, 1941 (US, The Conservative Revolution, Putnam, 1941; UK, Make and Break With the Nazis – Letters on a Conservative Revolution, Secker and Warburg, 1941)
  • Men of Chaos, New York 1952
  • Die Zeit des Deliriums, Zürich 1947 (US: Time of Delirium D. Appleton-Century, 1946)
  • Deutschland zwischen West und Ost, Stuttgart 1950
  • Ist Friede noch möglich? Die Verantwortung der Macht, Heidelberg 1953
  • Masken und Metamorphosen des Nihilismus – Der Nihilismus des XX. Jahrhunderts, Frankfurt am Main / Wien 1954
  • ...mitten ins Herz: über eine Politik ohne Angst (with H. Fleig, M. Boveri, J.A. v. Rantzau), Berlin 1954
  • Die deutsche Einheit und der Weltfriede, Hamburg 1955
  • Ruf über die Schwelle. Betrachtungen, Tübingen 1955
  • Der saure Weg, Berlin 1958
  • Mut zu einer neuen Politik, Berlin 1959




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Hermann Rauschning" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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